Dumai, Riau, (Antarariau.com)- As many as 200 military personnel were deployed to help efforts to extinguish forest and land fires in five districts and cities in the Riau Province in Sumatra Island.
The chief of the 0303 District Military Command in Bengkalis, Lt. Col. Mahfud Ghozali, said the military personnel had been sent to a number of locations to help various concerned agencies to extinguish the fires, here on Wednesday.
"We have sent our personnel to five districts to overcome the fires that have caused haze in the Riau Province," he told Antara.
He said the worst hit was the Bengkalis district, where the fires have affected protected forests, palm oil plantations and land belonging to the villagers.
"We have deployed about 150 personnel in Bengkalis," he added.
He said efforts to put out the fires had been hindered by a lack of water supply as canals have dried in the current dry season.
He said the fires in four other districts, namely Kepulauan Meranti, Siak, Rohil and Dumai, did not cause as much havoc as those in Bengkalis.
Due to the fires on the land in Bengkalis, a villager suffered light burn injury and five houses and a school were burned.
According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, a total of 11,128 hectares of forests, plantations and land in the Riau Province have been burned in fires that have raged in the past four weeks.
The fires in the Riau Province have occurred since early February, and they are still continuing and spreading to wider locations causing haze in various areas.
Forestry minister Zulkifli Hasan could not lead a ceremony to mark fire fighting operations in the province on Wednesday, after his flight was delayed due to poor visibility in the Riau Province s air base.
However, he finally was able to fly there but missed the ceremony. He will be briefed about the fires when he arrives and will inspect the affected area by air, a local official said here on Wednesday
Military Personnel Deployed to Overcome Forest Fires in Riau
